屯 → 巽
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初九 磐桓。利居貞。利建侯。
Nine at the beginning means: Hesitation and hindrance. It furthers one to remain persevering. It furthers one to appoint helpers.
Line 2
六二 屯如邅如。乘馬班如。匪寇婚媾。女子貞不字。十年乃字。
Six in the second place means: Difficulties pile up. Horse and wagon part. He is not a robber; He wants to woo when the time comes. The maiden is chaste, She does not pledge herself. Ten years–then she pledges herself.
Line 3
六三 即鹿無虞。惟入于林中。君子幾不如舍。往吝。
Six in the third place means: Whoever hunts deer without the forester Only loses his way in the forest. The superior man understands the signs of the time And prefers to desist. To go on brings humiliation.
Line 6
上六 乘馬班如。泣血漣如。
Six at the top means: Horse and wagon part. Bloody tears flow.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
久客無依，思歸我鄉。雷雨盛溢，道未得通。
Long a guest with no support, I think of returning to my homeland. Thunder and rain overflow; the road has not yet opened.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder yield to doubled wind: initial difficulty meets the gentle persistence of The Gentle. A long-term exile with no one to rely on yearns to return to his homeland. But thunderstorms rage and floods rise, and the road remains impassable. The verse captures the particular anguish of a traveler who knows where home is but cannot reach it. The obstacle is natural, not political — rain and flood block the path. From Difficulty at the Beginning to The Gentle, doubled wind should penetrate like a quiet command reaching everywhere. Yet the verse shows wind's limitation: gentleness cannot force a swollen river to recede. The exile's longing and the wind's persistent whisper share the same quality: continuous, pervasive, and ultimately powerless against the storm. Patience must wait for conditions to change.
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